British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged £6m to secure the future of Irish language broadcasting in Northern Ireland.
According to Sinn Féin, Mr Brown confirmed he would provide support for the threatened Irish Language Broadcast Fund during a meeting with party President Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday.
The future of the project, which was created out of the Good Friday Agreement, had been unclear after a failure to secure substantial funding beyond 2009.
£12m has already been pumped into the fund since 2005 with a target of achieving 75 additional hours of Irish language programmes on screens per year to a weekly audience of 25,000 people across the North and throughout the island of Ireland.
Sinn Féin leaders raised the matter with Mr Brown during talks at Downing Street earlier this month.
Yesterday, during his visit to Stormont Castle with US President George W Bush, Mr Brown told Sinn Féin he would provide £6m support from the Treasury.
Mr Adams said the Irish Language Broadcast Fund has been enormously successful and has fostered close links with broadcasters throughout Ireland.
It has effectively delivered quality Irish language programming, he said.
Mr Adams also said his party would continue campaigning to achieve an Irish language Act.
